Carteret Mayor Daniel Reiman wants the state to suspend the borough school board.Star-Ledger file photo

CARTERET — In the growing battle with the borough's school board, Carteret Mayor Daniel Reiman has asked state officials to suspend the board for apparently planning to dismiss tenure charges against two faculty members.

In a letter dated Monday, Reiman asked state education Commissioner Christopher Cerf to take over the district operations after school board attorneys resigned over handling of the tenure charges.

Two faculty members — high school science teacher and Carteret Education Association president John Nartowicz and high school guidance counselor Bonita Baskay — were suspended without pay last November over charges they improperly obtained and circulated a student's confidential records among board members in 2011.

Last week, Reiman requested the state attorney general and the Department of Education to take over an investigation into allegations a former high school student's confidential academic records were improperly distributed.

That request from Reiman came two days before the newly reorganized board met in closed session to discuss the tenure charges.

Reiman, in a statement today, said the board released no information after the meeting, but board attorneys submitted a letter of resignation stating, "it is the desire of the new board majority to take necessary steps to arrange for the dismissal or resolution of the pending tenure charges against" Nartowicz and Baskay.

In his letter to Cerf, Reiman said that "given these most shocking circumstances, I am earnestly requesting that your office take whatever legal action is necessary to suspend the current Board of Education and assume control of the board's operation to protect our children from the unscrupulous actions and horrendously unethical conduct of this board's new majority."

Reiman, who said he was given a copy of the resignation letter, had campaigned for a slate of candidates in last November's election, but only one of the three candidates he supported was elected. Reiman contends the teachers union supported the opposing candidates.

Reiman today said board members had improperly passed around confidential records of several students.

Nartowicz earlier this month denied he had done anything improper, and said the incident occurred in July 2011 but he was not charged until last November, two months after he became president of the union.